The Hart Sisters Trilogy: Book 1
The Billionaire’s Secret Marriage
By Elizabeth Lennox
Register for free stories at www.elizabethlennox.com/subscribe/
Follow Elizabeth on Facebook: www.facebook.com/Author.Elizabeth.Lennox
Or on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ElizabethLenno1
Copyright 2015
ISBN13: 9781940134529
All rights reserved
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either
the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Any duplication of this material,
either electronic or any other format, either currently in use or a future invention, is strictly
prohibited unless you have the direct consent of the author.
If you download this material in any format, either electronic or other, on a non-sanctioned site,
please be warned that you and the website are in violation of copyright infringement. Financial
and punitive damages may be pursued in whichever legal venue is appropriate.
Chapter 1
Refuge! Jayden forced a bright smile to her face while moving around the party, but her
eyes weren’t seeing the guests or monitoring the flow of drinks and food. She wasn’t observing
the wait staff any longer. She needed a private place. She needed a place to scream and vent and
rail against the unfairness in the world. Her role as the manager of Trois Coeurs Catering would
just have to be put aside for a few moments while she found a place to rant about the injustice of
the world! Well, perhaps that was a bit dramatic, but she sure could tear up the letter she’d
received right before they’d stepped into the catering van for this event.
The door to the left! She knew that the hostess had declared that room off limits for the
night. Normally, she respected those edicts, but right now she needed a private place and an offlimits room was the only place she could think of that wouldn’t have other people milling about.
She burst into the room, clutching her leather notebook against her chest and almost
sobbed when she closed the door behind her. “No!” she whispered, bending over as if she were
in pain. “This can’t be happening! It just can’t!” She let the worry, pain, anxiety and fear crash
over her, knowing that she was finally alone. “It’s not fair!” she sobbed.
Slamming her leather notebook down on one of the tables, she grabbed the offending
letter, reading only the first few sentences before she couldn’t go any further. She’d already read
it right before the guests started arriving, so she knew the contents. Reading them once again
wouldn’t make them any more palatable.
Tearing it up, she crumpled the pieces, growling as she let her emotions rule the moment.
She rarely let things like this upset her, always ready to figure out a way around problems. But
this one confounded her. This one was too big, too powerful. She felt impotent and vulnerable
and she hated that feeling. And she hated the man who had created that vulnerability. She
wished he were here so she could scratch his eyes out, punch his chest and maybe do some other
horrible things to him.
“Bastard!” she gasped, tossing the now crumpled pieces of paper onto the ground.
Of course, just because she’d torn up the letter, that wasn’t going to keep the words from
changing her world. The horrible man had been threatening her for months and she’d fought it.
Goodness, she’d fought against his demands every time!
The letter clearly stated that the company the man represented wanted to buy up her
property. He’d sent several other letters, saying almost exactly the same thing but the offer
amount had changed. No matter how many times she’d rejected the offer, he continued to send
additional offers.
Now things were getting nasty. He was threatening her with a lower price and loss of
business if she didn’t comply.
Jayden didn’t want to change! She loved their little family operation. Jayden – along
with her triplet sisters, Jasmine and Janine – worked their catering business out of the kitchen on
the ground floor of a quaint two story building in a low cost area of the city. The rent was
perfect and the area wasn’t so bad that they felt uncomfortable. Every day, the sisters created
their culinary masterpieces and met clients downstairs in the kitchen area. Upstairs, she lived
with her sisters and her two nieces, Dalia and Dana, who were the cutest four year old girls a
person could ever meet.
Janine might still resent Dalia and Dana’s father for his desertion, but Jayden was secretly
happy with their little family unit, which was completed by three obnoxious but loving animals,
Ruffus, the laziest dog in the world, Odie, the wiliest cat and Cena, a tiny pig that Dalia had
begged Janine to get her for weeks. Cena now pranced around on his little hooves, nudging the
cat with his chubby nose which caused Odie to hiss and sputter, and take his frustration out on
Ruffus. There were crazy moments with so many people and animals living together. It got even
more wild when her mother, Maggie, and her mother’s twin sister Mary, stopped by with their
husbands. Well, and Mary’s kids, and all the extended family…yes, it was a zoo at times with so
many people in a small space, but it was warm and wonderful and she couldn’t imagine working
and living any other way. They were a family and one didn’t just up and move a family. That
would change things and she couldn’t guarantee that they would change for the better, so she was
digging her heels in. They were happy, damn it! This man couldn’t mess with a family’s
happiness!
Aunt Mary and her mom watched Dalia and Dana while the three of them went out for
their evening catering events. The triplets’ dad, Tom, was a mad scientist that liked to create
signature cocktails that were part of the brilliant service of Trois Coeurs Catering. Even Aunt
Mary’s husband, Uncle Joe, helped out whenever there was a grilling component to an event. He
loved mixing up spices and rubs for the roasts or ribs. The spices were so much in demand,
Jayden had started to market those separately. Uncle Joe’s spices and rubs were a huge internet
hit!
All of their success was due to the love and energy that was focused in their building.
Without Janine’s fabulous cooking or Jasmine’s mouth-watering baking, they would be out of
business. Jayden, as the business manager, had the easiest job because of her sisters’ genius.
She simply brought samples whenever she went on a marketing call and their food sold their
services immediately. The clients fought to have Janine and Jayden’s foods at their events now.
Moving to a new location would change everything!
“Perhaps I can help?” a deep voice said from the shadows.
Jayden jumped up, looking around, frantically wiping the tears from her face. “Who’s
there?” she demanded angrily. “This room is off-limits.”
The extremely tall, extremely handsome man came out of the shadows towards her, drink
in one hand, the other in the pocket of a beautifully hand-made tuxedo. “I’m sorry to have
invaded your privacy,” the smooth, deep voice said but Jayden didn’t think he was very sorry.
Jayden stared at the man. She could honestly say that she’d never seen a man as
handsome and attractive as this one. Her whole body trembled with the awareness of him, the
sheer power and size of this man. It wasn’t that his features were perfect, in a classical sense.
The exact opposite was true, and it surprised her to realize she liked that in a man. His jaw was
too hard, his nose perhaps too thin and his eyes….his crystal blue eyes looked like they could see
into her soul. The strange, blue depths actually scared her as she looked up at the incredibly tall
man approaching her, making her think of a dangerous, black cat stalking its prey. The way his
features were put together gave her a premonition of sensual awareness unlike anything she’d
ever experienced before.
Was he real? Or was he just something her muddled mind had conjured up in order to get
her to stop worrying about her business problems? Perhaps he was just a figment of her
imagination. If that were the case, she thought as her breath hitched in her throat, she had to give
her imagination kudos! This man was magnificent!
Her body’s reaction to this man startled her and she looked back down, trying to temper
the way she was reacting to him. She focused instead at the crumpled papers, now littering the
floor at her feet. She looked back up at him, unaware of his almost intimate perusal of her body.
Jayden had never felt like this before and every instinct inside of her was telling her to run away,
get away from this dangerous man. But her feet were frozen in place, her body trembling as he
came closer. “No. I’m sorry. You were obviously here first. I’ve invaded your privacy,” she
said, forcing her body to bend down to pick up the pieces of the letter she’d ripped apart,
hugging them to her stomach. “I’ll get out of here.”
Dante watched the woman carefully, intrigued by the combination of her startlingly lush
figure and her strangely innocent green eyes. The eyes and the body were such a contradiction.
Her soft, feminine figure said she was made for passionate interludes, for taking to bed and
letting a man forget his old sins and start creating new ones. But her eyes, wide and green and
surrounded by perfectly white skin with just a hint of a blush, tried to portray that she was
innocent. That she wasn’t one of those stunningly beautiful women who used their bodies, looks
and brains to seduce men into believing there was love and hope and all of those other silly,
naive emotions.
The contradiction was extraordinary. And alluring. He suddenly realized that his body
was reacting quickly to her long, slender legs and the way her black dress shifted higher on her
sexy thigh as she bent down to pick up a stray piece of paper. He wanted to inch that dress up
higher, to run his fingers over her soft skin and discover the texture.
Never had a woman affected him this powerfully. Nor so quickly.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” he asked, thinking this woman knew exactly what
she was doing to him.
The reminder of her problem brought Jayden back to the present. Gone were the
churning, sexual fantasies that popped into her mind with this man as the star. The disastrous
business problem came rushing back and Jayden felt a burst of hysteria bubble up inside of her.
She pushed it down mercilessly, but the sexual need combined with her current anxiety caused
her mind to be less agile than normal. “No. Thank you very much for your kind offer, but this
isn’t something anyone can help me with.”
Dante looked down at the astoundingly lovely profile of the woman. He’d already
noticed her lush figure hidden by the hideous black dress. He was a connoisseur of women and
could see the curves, evaluate the possibilities of any woman despite the clothes she used to try
and hide her curves. Not many women of his acquaintance challenged him in that way, which
was why this woman was so refreshing. Her soft, porcelain skin was just now showing a touch
of rose colored pink, and her almond shaped green eyes were free from tons of makeup to
accentuate that delightful color. She wore only mascara and a touch of gloss, revealing to the
world the natural splendor of her lovely features. He was intrigued by the fresh beauty that was
free for all to observe. It was a fascinating counterpoint to the sensuous curves that were hidden
to the world.
“Let me see the paper,” he commanded, trying to keep his voice low so as not to scare
her. “I probably can help more than you know.”
She clutched the papers closer to her, shaking her head. Of all the people in the world
she didn’t want to know her shame, this man with his dark, good looks and his intelligent eyes,
not to mention the erotic hum she felt at the moment…well, he would be the absolute last man
she’d want to know about her problem. “No. Thank you very much but…” Surely this man
would never be trapped into a no-win situation, she thought. Nope, he was probably the man
who would put others into a bad pickle like she was in now.
A moment later, the papers were inched out of her hand and the tall, handsome stranger
was reading her shame.
“Hey!” she gasped, jumping up and trying to grab them back. But the man just wrapped
his arm around her waist and held her close, pressing her breasts, well, and the rest of her,
against his hard body. She gasped at the contact, shocked at how amazingly good it felt. Jayden
thought about reaching for the papers but she was frozen in his arms, unable to move. It
occurred to her that she should probably protest, but…well, the man felt really good! He was
solid and muscular and, oh my, he smelled absolutely amazing!
Dante looked down at the woman in his arms, forgetting about the papers he was trying
to read as the desire to kiss her struck him hard. Such an undisciplined reaction was shocking to
him and he didn’t completely understand it. When she tried to pull away, his arm tightened
around her waist. No, he wasn’t finished with her. Not by a long shot!
Dante forced his gaze away from those green eyes and read through the words in the
letter. It had come from the president of one of his companies, Mike McDonald. In fact, Mike
had just reported to him yesterday that the downtown renovation project, a massive buyout of
about a hundred smaller properties and businesses who were either owning or renting space in
that area, had been taken care of. Everything was under control and construction on the new
complex would proceed on time. Obviously, this little woman and her catering company was not
one of those details Mike thought necessary to discuss with his boss. Dante didn’t condemn the
man for that. In fact, Dante didn’t care about those details. He wanted to know that the issues
were being resolved and, obviously, Mike was resolving this one. Very effectively, according to
the words on the letter.
“Clearly this is a problem,” he said softly, looking down at the beautiful woman. He
noted that her breathing was faster and that she fit against him perfectly. He liked her softness,
the feel of her hand against his chest. He wished the two of them were naked, and that hand was
moving lower.
Patience, he thought as his mind whirled with the possibilities.
Jayden couldn’t hold his gaze. She was ashamed of the way her body was reacting to this
man’s hold around her waist as well as how badly she’d messed up her business problem.
“Four of my events have been canceled since I received that letter earlier tonight,” Jayden
explained softly, braced against his chest, relieved when he released her and she took several
steps backwards. “The man is fulfilling his promise,” she said, referring to the threat that her
business would start dropping off if she didn’t comply with the request to move. The offer was
generous, she knew. But Jayden didn’t want to move. She didn’t feel the need to move in any
way. She and her sisters had experienced great success in that little shop and she didn’t want to
change anything. She liked things the way they were.
Dante’s mind shifted quickly, sorting through issues and problems then coming up with a
plan. He turned and leaned against the desk, his eyes taking in the woman and her soft skin, her
bright green eyes. He knew that she was scared and worried, and all of that played into his plan
perfectly. She had something he needed, and he could solve her problem with just a simple
phone call. It would also allow him to hold her once again. That was something he wanted very
badly.
Pulling out his phone, he dialed a number, looking down at the woman’s glittering green
eyes the whole time. When the call was answered, he spoke into the phone. “Mike, Dante
Liakos here. I need to speak with you tomorrow about the Arlington project. Slide me in at
three, okay?” A moment later, the call was disconnected and the tall, handsome man looked back
down at her, sending a shiver of awareness through her whole body. “Have lunch with me
tomorrow.”
Jayden realized that he wasn’t asking. He was commanding. Her reaction was swift and
reckless since he obviously knew Mike McDonald. But despite her awareness of his power, she
shook her head, instinctively knowing that this man was dangerous. She had no idea who he was
or what he could do to help fix this, but she knew better than to get in bed with the devil. “I
can’t. But thank you for the offer.” She gestured to the phone. “And really, you don’t need to
help. I’ll figure this out myself.”
Dante almost laughed. He took her hand and pulled her closer, enjoying her soft hand but
concerned about the slight trembling he felt in her fingers. “Don’t be afraid of me, Jayden,” he
said, her name sliding off of his tongue and he found that he liked the sound of it. “Always use
your business connections. Connections and information will consistently trump money.”
She started to pull back, but he actually pulled her closer and she found that she was
powerless to avoid the man. And what was worse, she was starting to think that she didn’t really
want to. “I don’t know who you are,” she said, just to say anything. Her eyes dropped to his lips
and something tightened inside of her. She didn’t want him to kiss her! She told herself that
over and over again. Just because she liked the way his chest felt underneath her fingers, that
was no reason to lose her head and want him to kiss her!
“I’m Dante Liakos, at your service,” he replied, engulfing her hand with his. “It is a
pleasure to meet you, Jayden Hart.” They hadn’t introduced themselves before now, but his eyes
had captured her name from the letter. It was a pretty, unusual name, fitting her perfectly.
She shivered as his hand touched hers, his warmth seeping into her body and calming
everything while at the same time, sparking to life feelings she didn’t know existed.
Jayden pulled her eyes away from his firm lips, refusing to let her mind wonder what it
would be like to be kissed by a man so commanding. He had such confidence, such amazing
charisma. She’d met many handsome men over the years, but none had ever affected her in such
an elemental way. None had ever made her fingers itch to touch him again. Just the opposite in
fact. Most of the time, after kissing her dates goodnight, she was relieved when that part of the
evening was over. “I have to get back to work,” she whispered, then cleared her throat, trying to
get more power behind the words. “I’m part of the catering staff here tonight.”
His fingers tightened over her fingers for a moment before he released her hand. “Noon,
tomorrow, Jayden Hart. I’ll have someone pick you up.”
She pulled back, horrified at the idea. Pick her up? Why would he do that? “No, just
name the restaurant. I can get there,” she told him, then bit her lip because she really should just
tell this man that she couldn’t meet him for lunch. Being near him was hazardous to her thinking
process. There was something about him that screamed out “stay away”!
He shook his head. “I’ll have a car come round.”
With that, he bent down and kissed her. It was just a light touch, done almost before she
realized it was happening. She was too stunned to do anything but accept the kiss, revel in the
shocking feeling of his strong lips touching hers. A moment later, he was pulling away and she
had to bite her lower lip to keep herself from telling him to kiss her again. She pulled her eyes
away from his broad shoulders, her fingers carefully touching her lips while he walked out of the
room.
She heard the door click closed and turned around, finding that she was alone all of a
sudden. Her lips were still burning, still throbbing as if they were begging for something more.
More? What more could a stranger give to…she was trying to figure out what her lips wanted?
How ridiculous.
Stuffing all of the pieces of the torn up letter into her planner, she shook her head and
walked over to the door, determined to catch up with the man and tell him she couldn’t meet him
for lunch. She knew nothing about him, had no clue what he could do to help her out of this
mess but she wasn’t going to accept his help anyway. She’d figure this one out on her own.
But when she opened the door, the man was nowhere in sight. She rushed through the
crowd, her eyes scanning the room. When she spotted him, she almost groaned with frustration
because he was by the door, saying goodbye to the hostess. She’d missed him!
That’s fine, she thought with renewed determination. She’d just call him tomorrow and
cancel. There wasn’t anything she couldn’t figure out if she put her mind to it. This latest
wrinkle was the same.
List of Elizabeth Lennox Books
The Texas Tycoon’s Temptation
The Royal Cordova Trilogy
Escaping a Royal Wedding
The Man’s Outrageous Demands
Mistress to the Prince
The Attracelli Family Series
Never Dare A Tycoon
Falling For The Boss
Risky Negotiations
Proposal To Love
Love's Not Terrifying
Romantic Acquisition
The Billionaire's Terms: Prison Or Passion
The Sheik's Love Child
The Sheik's Unfinished Business
The Greek Tycoon's Lover
The Sheik's Sensuous Trap
The Greek's Baby Bargain
The Italian's Bedroom Deal
The Billionaire's Gamble
The Tycoon's Seduction Plan
The Sheik's Rebellious Mistress
The Sheik's Missing Bride
Blackmailed By The Billionaire
The Billionaire's Runaway Bride
The Billionaire's Elusive Lover
The Intimate, Intricate Rescue
The Sisterhood Trilogy
The Sheik's Virgin Lover
The Billionaire's Impulsive Lover
The Russian's Tender Lover
The Billionaire's Gentle Rescue
The Tycoon's Toddler Surprise
The Tycoon's Tender Triumph
The Friends Forever Series
The Sheik's Mysterious Mistress
The Duke's Willful Wife
The Tycoon's Marriage Exchange
The Sheik's Secret Twins
The Russian's Furious Fiancée
The Tycoon's Misunderstood Bride
Love By Accident Series
The Sheik's Pregnant Lover
The Sheik's Furious Bride
The Duke's Runaway Princess
The Russian's Pregnant Mistress
The Lovers Exchange Series
The Earl's Outrageous Lover
The Tycoon's Resistant Lover
The Sheik's Reluctant Lover
The Spanish Tycoon's Temptress
The Berutelli Escape
Resisting The Tycoon's Seduction
The Billionaire’s Secretive Enchantress
The Billionaire’s Pregnant Lover
The Sheik’s Rediscovered Lover
The Tycoon’s Defiant Southern Belle
The Sheik’s Dangerous Lover (Novella)
The Thorpe Brothers
His Captive Lover
His Unexpected Lover
His Secretive Lover
His Challenging Lover
The Sheik’s Defiant Fiancée (Novella)
The Prince’s Resistant Lover (Novella)
The Tycoon’s Make-Believe Fiancée (Novella)
The Friendship Series
The Billionaire’s Masquerade
The Russian’s Dangerous Game
The Sheik’s Beautiful Intruder
The Love and Danger Series – Romantic Mysteries
Intimate Desires
Intimate Caresses
Intimate Secrets
Intimate Whispers
The Alfieri Saga
The Italian’s Passionate Return (Novella)
Her Gentle Capture
His Reluctant Lover
Her Unexpected Admirer
Her Tender Tyrant
Releasing the Billionaire’s Passion (Novella)
His Expectant Lover (January 2015)
The Sheik’s Intimate Proposition (Novella)
The Hart Sisters Trilogy
The Billionaire’s Secret Marriage
The Italian’s Twin Surprise (March, 2015)
The Russian’s Forbidden Lover (April, 2015)